Experienced Wildcats just too much for Aggies

Nationally ranked Arizona made its 10th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament Friday night, while Utah State entered for just the third time in school history.

The Wildcats, ranked sixth, used it to their advantage in their 30-26, 30-27, 30-20 victory over the Aggies at Crimson Court.

"There is always something a little different when you come into the tournament," Utah State coach Burt Fuller said. "Arizona has got a ton of experience and they have earned that over time."

Arizona trailed only once in the the match, 3-2 early in Game 1, but never looked back after Bre Ladd had five straight service points.

"I think we started off making a couple more unforced errors than we would have to," Arizona senior Jennifer Abernathy said. "We cleaned it up really good and started to be more consistent."

Behind Ladd, who had eight service points and Abernathy, who had six, the Wildcats went on to win 30-26 in the first game.

Again, the Aggies (21-12) fell behind in Game 2 when Amy Dyck had five straight service points to open the match, putting the Aggies behind the eight-ball.

"It's so much harder to get yourself out of that when you have that deficit already to start with," Utah State senior Ingrid Roth said. "It's like starting a pickup game by giving the other team 10 points."

Zuzana Cernianska agreed.

"It's very tough. We knew Arizona is very good and we always (want to start well) from the beginning, but we didn't do that. It's hard to play catchup," she said.

The Aggies, however, bounced back from the early second-game deficit to tie the score at 15-15. At 17-17, Arizona's Dominique Lamb sandwiched two kills around two Utah State hitting errors to take the 21-17 lead.

Again, the Aggies brought it back to a one-point game but gave up three straight points before falling, 30-27.

"We were down and it felt like we were down and we would get momentum and by that time we had already dug ourselves in a hole," Roth said.

Utah State trailed 4-1 in the final game and pulled it to within a point on two occasions. Following the latter, however, Abernathy, an All-Pac 10 performer, reeled off five straight service points to put the game and match out of reach.